Alright, brethren, let's take
our Bibles and turn to 1 Corinthians 12. 1 Corinthians 12. I have a message this morning that
is very needful for believers, and I hope the Lord will give
us an understanding here to enter into what's being taught in this
passage. Let's read one verse here, 1
Corinthians 12.27. Now, ye are the body of Christ
and members in particular. Ye are the body of Christ. Ye are the body of Christ. Now, this speaks of Christ's
spiritual body. This is speaking of the church
of God. It's speaking of each individual
believer who is a member in particular, just like your hands and your
nose and your ears and your eyes are members of your own physical
body. Each individual believer is a member of Christ's
body. Now ye are the body of Christ
and members in particular. Now lately it's become more evident
to me And it's given me much cause to thank the Lord that
He's given us something very rare and very special in this
place. He's put you who believe in the
body of Christ. He's given us the rare privilege
of being in the body of Christ. He's put you who believe here
and given you a heart. I do believe this. He's given
you a heart constrained by the love of Christ. Constrained to
believe Christ. Constrained to honor Christ in
your worship of Christ and in your lives. Constrained to love
and care for one another, for each other. This love can't be
established by commandments of men. It can't be established
by threatening. It can't be established by promise
of rewards or anything of that nature. This is the word of the
Lord to Zerubbabel. He said, not by might, not by
power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. This work
is accomplished by the Spirit of the Lord, by the power of
God, and it's accomplished through the means of the constant hearing
of the Gospel. The hearing of God the Father's
electing grace in Christ before the foundation of the world.
The continual hearing of Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who came
and effectually redeemed His particular people by His blood
on Calvary's tree. The hearing of God the Holy Spirit,
of His regenerating, calling, converting, keeping, preserving
power towards His people. And it's my prayer that God will
continue to grow us. He'll continue to keep us and
continue to grow us in this love for Christ and for one another.
Now you are the body of Christ and members in particular. Now
that's a powerful reminder to us. It's a reminder to us of
three things. Three things. Number one, that
God alone is to be praised for His grace toward each of us who
are in Christ's body. He's the only one we have to
praise for this glorious privilege He's given. It's by His grace
we're in this body. Number two, it's a reminder to
us of our union with Christ. Our inseparable, unchangeable
union with Christ. And our union with one another. with fellow believers in Christ. And number three, it's a reminder
of the great responsibility and the privilege of serving Christ,
and of serving Christ particularly by serving one another, by serving
fellow members that are in the body of Christ. First of all,
this blessing reminds us that God alone is to be praised for
putting us in the body of Christ. Look back up in verse 2. Now,
let me remind you, the church at Corinth had some problems.
And one of the causes of those problems was that God had given
special gifts and operations and administrations to various
ones in the church, and there were others in the church that
didn't have these gifts. and didn't have these administrations,
and didn't have these operations, and even had a need of these
administrations being ministered to them. So there was a two-fold
problem here. On one side you had folks who
were proud of their grace, and on the other hand you had folks
who felt like they were not needed and they were not necessary because
they had needs. Now listen to what he tells us
here. For those who are proud, he reminds us of this. Verse
2, "...you know that you were Gentiles, carried away unto these
dumb idols, even as you were led. Wherefore I give you to
understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth
Jesus accursed, and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord,
but by the Holy Ghost." Brethren, we were Gentiles. We were carried
away unto dumb idols. That's what we were. Every one
of us here today that's been saved by God's grace, we had
some idol carved out in our imagination. The God who wants to but can't
is an idol. The God who died for everybody
but accomplished the redemption of none is an idol. That's an
idol God. The God who must wait on man's
puny will is an idol. That's an idol. And all the while
that we served the idol God, we may have called on the name
of the Lord, we may have used the name the Lord, but we didn't
mean it in our heart. We thought we were God. We came
by our will. We were pleasing God by our works. We were the judge and the jury
of God. And poor little helpless Jesus, we were controlling Him
in our mind, in our imagination, calling Lord, Lord. And we may
have said we were doing that by the Spirit of God. But here's
what we were doing. We were calling the Lord Jesus
a curse. It says in verse 3, I give you
to understand, no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth
Jesus a curse. Now, we may have claimed to be
speaking by the Spirit of God. We may have claimed to have been.
But saying that the blood of Christ is common to all men,
that Christ died for all men, but accomplished the redemption
of nobody, that's to count His blood a common, worthless thing. That's to call the Lord Jesus
accursed. And no man that says that is
speaking by the Spirit of God. No man's going to call Christ
accursed who's speaking by the Spirit of God. He's speaking
by His own Spirit, by His own power. But now, Now, who do we
have to glory in that we can, from a new heart, from a true
heart, we can say now that the Lord Jesus is Lord, that He is
God come in the flesh, that He is God who accomplished the redemption
of the people given Him before the foundation of the world,
that He perfected them forever by His one offering on the tree?
Who do we have to praise that we can say that? Only the Spirit
of God. Look now, verse 3 again. No man
can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. God the
Father put us in Christ, and God the Holy Spirit quickened
us and brought us to confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is
Lord of lords and King of kings. Paul said back in the first chapter,
he said that no flesh of glory in His presence of God are you
in Christ, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption, that as it is written, he that
glories, let him glory in the Lord. We have one to glory in. So, brethren, if we ever find
ourselves becoming proud of our grace, and thinking we've been
gifted and that we've got something above another member of Christ's
body, let us remember where we were and who it is to be praised
for where we are now. He put us in the body. He called
us out of darkness into light. He alone is to be praised. Now
secondly, this great blessing of being in Christ's body reminds
us of our union with Christ. And it reminds us of our union
with one another as members in the body of Christ. Look at verse
12. He says, For as the body is one,
and has many members, and all the members of that one body,
being many, are one body, so also is Christ. The human body
is the illustration he's using here. But he's speaking of Christ's
body. He's speaking of the church.
From the top of our head to the bottom of our feet is just one
body. One body. Verse 12 says, for
as the body is one, but our body has many members. We've got many
members in our body. Some are seen. Some are seen
for their usefulness. We see the usefulness of some
of our members. You see the usefulness more prominent
of your hands, and of your eyes, and of your nose, or your hands
and your ears and your nose. The other members are not as
noticeable, like your feet or your ears, for instance. Yet
each member, every member, though different, though they're different,
though they serve a different function, they're still a part
of that one body. Verse 12 says, For as the body
is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one
body being many are one body, so also is Christ. Now ye are the body of Christ,
and members in particular. Christ is the head. Christ is
our head. And every believer is a member
in particular, and together we make up body of Christ. Alright? Let's read verse 13.
4. Here's how they say it. By one
Spirit. Now notice these words. By one
Spirit. Are we all, by one Spirit, are
we all baptized into one body? Whether we be Jews or Gentiles,
whether we be bond or free, and have been all Everyone at all
made to drink into one spirit. Now, we come from different backgrounds,
but we're all made one body by one spirit and made to drink
into one spirit. Now, this doesn't speak of water
baptism here. It's not talking about water
baptism. Water baptism and baptism of the Holy Ghost are two different
things. Remember, John the Baptist said, I baptize you with water
unto repentance. He said, But he, Christ, that
cometh after me, is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not
worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with the
Holy Ghost and with fire. Water baptism doesn't regenerate
anybody. A dead sinner is a dead sinner. He can go in the water all he
wants to. The water is a baptism. That's not going to regenerate
him. That's not going to unite him with the body, the spiritual
body of Christ. Only the Holy Spirit regenerates.
And only the Holy Spirit unites us to the body of Christ in our
experience of it. Now, it's possible to be baptized
in water and not to be regenerated and not to be united into the
body of Christ. That's a possibility. But our
text here is speaking about regeneration and conversion and sanctification
of the Holy Spirit. Verse 13 says, "...for by one
Spirit are we all baptized into one body." In 2 Thessalonians
2 verse 13, Paul said, We are bound to give thanks always to
God for you, brethren, the loved of the Lord, because God hath
from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth. Whereunto he called you
by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. The baptism of the Holy Spirit,
regeneration, sanctification, being separated out, converted
to Christ, united to Christ by the Holy Spirit. Now, no matter
what our carnal station is in life, it doesn't matter. It doesn't
matter where we came from, what our background was, what kind
of distinctions we tried to make about ourselves beforehand. It
says there, verse 13, whether we're Jews or Gentiles, whether
we're bond or free, we have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
Every true believer, is a partaker of one spirit. We are partaker
of one life, Christ our life. We are made to drink into one
spirit, and therefore we are one in Christ, in Christ our
kinsman-redeemer. So, remember our union, our union
with Christ. That union will never be severed.
It will never be severed. What God has joined together
will never be put asunder. That is certain, brethren. So,
remember this union. And this union makes us members
one of another. It makes us united to one another. Forever true believer. Alright,
here's the third thing. Now, I want you to pay close
attention to this because, you know, when we read Scripture,
this is such a simple illustration Paul's given here. And we're
apt to think we're so wise. We're apt to think, oh, I understand.
I get that. And maybe God will dumb us down
and we'll get this because this is stated so simply and yet it's
so profound. It's the wisdom of God here.
Now listen carefully. Being in this body is for the
purpose of showing us our responsibility and our privilege of serving
Christ by serving one another. And also it's for this reason.
It's to teach us Christ's ability to provide for us, using these
individual members that He's put in the body, is to show us
Christ providing for us. Let's see this. Now, though we're
one in one body, we're different members with different gifts
for different purposes. Alright, verse 14. The body's
not one member, but many. The body's not one member, but
many. In our physical body, each member
is different. Each member is different. Now
look back up at verse 4. He says there are diversities
of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of administrations,
different kind of ministries, but the same Lord. And there
are diversities of operations, but it's the same God which works
all in all. But the manifestation of the
Spirit is given to every man to profit with. It's not given
to make our boast and brag about gifts. It's to profit one another.
There's a purpose for this giving of these gifts. Now, these differences
were making some members in the church at Corinth feel inferior. It was making them feel unnecessary
because they had needs. They didn't have these gifts.
They had needs. They were on the other side of
this spectrum. They had needs and they needed
to be provided for. So they were feeling unnecessary.
Now remember Paul said, are you not yet carnal? They weren't
understanding what this is about. They weren't understanding why
it is I have this need and this other has these gifts. I want
those gifts, they were thinking. Well, this is something we need
to get. Look at this carefully, verse
15. He said, If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand,
I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear
shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body, is
it therefore not of the body? Now, let's just look at this
illustration. You take the foot. It may appear
inferior to the hand. Our foot may appear inferior
to our hand. The foot doesn't serve as noticeably
as the hand does. It's not as noticeable. It's
not as prominent. The foot's covered up. It's not seen. It's
not seen. It's not recognized. The foot's
closer to the dust of the earth. It's lower. And let's say the
foot represents somebody who has less obvious gifts or As
was the case here, somebody who had a need. They had a need. And the hand represents somebody
full of good works. Somebody that has gifts. Somebody
that's been blessed of the Lord with gifts. Now notice the question
in verse 15. If the foot, this one who has
a need, this one who has less gifts, has a need, something
of that nature, If they shall say, well, because I'm not the
hand, because I don't have those gifts, and I don't have those
blessings, and I don't have that abundance, I'm not of the body. Is it therefore not of the body?
Are we to imagine there's one chosen child of God, one child
of God that Christ came and redeemed with the price of His precious
blood, one child He's called out of darkness and put into
his body that there's one child that Christ values less than
another? No way. No way. Is there a member
of our body that we value less? Is there a member of your body
that you say, well, I'll just cut that off. I don't need it?
Eric, you don't answer. Eric had his appendix removed
this week. But no, they're not members that
we just want to cut off. They're not members that we say,
well, that's just not important. I'll just cut that member off.
And also remember this, who gives and who withholds? Look back up at verse 11. The
selfsame Spirit divides to every man severally as he will. The Holy Spirit divides to the
man. Ephesians 4, 7 says, "...Unto every one of us is given grace
according to the measure of the gift of Christ." Now, do we imagine
Christ would count one less when Christ is the one who made them
less? When Christ is the one who didn't
give that measure of grace to them? Of course not. Of course not. A bruised reed
shall he not break, and the smoking flat shall he not quench. If
there's one bruised child of his, he's not going to break
that bruised child. If there's one smoking and doesn't
appear to have light or something, he's not going to put that one
out. But where there's a gift or an
operation or an administration or a need or plenty, there's
a reason. There's a reason. Wherever there
is a gift, wherever there's an operation, wherever there's administration,
where there's a need, or where there's plenty, there's a reason. Look at verse 17. If the whole
body were an eye, where would be the hearing? And if the whole
were hearing, where would be the smelling? You see, each member
in their appointed station serves an individual purpose for every
set time in the Church of God, at every time in the Church of
God. Every member in their appointed
station serves an individual purpose for that time. If every
member here was a preacher and there were no hearers, this wouldn't
be a body. If every member here played the
guitar and nobody was a singer, this wouldn't be a body. Our all-wise God places each
member, He puts each member, whether they have or they don't
have, whether they're blessed in abundance or not in abundance,
whether at some point in time they have a particular need,
or whether at that point in time they have an abundance. He puts
everyone in the body as it pleases Him. Look at verse 18. But now
hath God set the members, every one of them, in the body as it
hath pleased Him. And we're using the body as an
illustration. You remember when Moses complained about his speech
impediment to the Lord? You know how the Lord answered
him? The Lord said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth? Or
who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind?
Have not I the Lord? Now get this, right now, whatever
our condition is, whatever yours is, whatever mine is, right now,
where we are, Our ability or our inability, our gifts or our
lack of gifts, our needs or our fullness. Who placed us in that
body, in this body that way? He did. Our God did as it pleased
Him. Now, look at verse 19. And if
they were all one member, where was the body? Where's the body?
But now are they many members but one body. Brethren, if we
all had the same gifts, the same operation, the same administration,
if we all had fullness, we would not be a body. We would not be
a body. If you were just an eye, you
wouldn't be a body. If you were just a hand, you
wouldn't be a body. If we were all the same, with all the same
gifts and all the same operations, the same administration, the
same fullness, we wouldn't be a body. But now there are all
these varying gifts and these varying operations, these varying
needed administrations. That's what the body is because
that's what Christ has made it to be. That's what He's made
it to be. Are you following me? What's
the purpose? Why is that then? There's got
to be a reason He's made it this way. Look at verse 21. It's for this reason. He can't
say unto the hand, I don't need you. Nor again the head to the
feet, I have no need of you. We may be like the eye. We may
say, well, I don't have a need of the hand. But you know, in
our body, if you get something damaged in your eye, what's the
first one that comes to the aid of your eye? Your hand. Reach
up there and try to get that out, whatever it is in your eye.
Well, just look at verse 22. Much more, those members of the
body which seem to be more feeble, they're necessary. They're necessary. Do you seem to be more feeble?
Do you feel like you're more feeble? Well, don't despair. You're necessary. You're necessary. Every member of Christ's body,
whether he's gifted or he's less gifted, whether he's in need
or he's prospering, he's necessary. Even those that are in the body
that are more feeble are necessary. You see, think about this. If
Christ gives an administration, but He didn't give a need for
that administration, what would be the point of having that ministry? What would be the point? Just
to go around and say, well, I'm so-and-so. I do so-and-so. But
you don't do anything? You see, He gives a ministry
to us as he gives a need to us so that we can minister to that
need. When one believer becomes weak in some way, while God has
increased others in some way, that's not by accident. God doesn't
do anything by accident. That's done on purpose. That's
necessary. Why? God's giving. He's giving
an opportunity. And He's given a privilege to
those that He's increased to bear the burden, to strengthen
the hands of the member who He has given a need. And He's done
it to teach us all that it's Christ our Head who is providing
for each member in His body. Let me show you that. Turn over
with me to Ephesians chapter 4. Hold your place here and turn
to Ephesians chapter 4. Look at verse 15. Verse 15, he says, Speaking the
truth in love, we may grow up into Him in all things, which
is the head, even Christ. The head of the body, Christ.
From whom? From the head of the body. The
whole body is fitly joined together and compacted by that which every
joint supplieth. The joint here are those fellow
believers, those fellow members. You see, Christ has joined us
together. He's compacted us together by
that which every fellow member supplies. How do they supply? According to the effectual working. This is the effectual working
of Christ in the measure of every part. That measure means according
to Him giving the gift of grace to each member and working effectually
in them to supply the need of that member in need. And by this,
look what he does, he makes increase of the body. Not these temporal,
physical things you can see, but a better increase than that.
He makes an increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in
love. He makes us love him and he makes
us love one another by this. And he compacts us together that
much closer by doing that, by joining us together, by using
us to provide for one another. If I have a need, if I have a
need, and Christ provides you to meet that need, I shouldn't complain about my
situation. I shouldn't. And I shouldn't
put on this, you know, false humility and say, well, I don't
want you to provide for it. I shouldn't reject you meeting
that need. You know why? Christ says it's necessary. He
says it's necessary. He says He's done it. He says
He's done it. Christ is ministering to each
member in His body, showing each believer in His body in a practical
way that His strength is indeed made perfect in our weakness. This thing's not a theory. This
thing's not just a teaching. It's not simply a doctrine. Christ
is doing this in His body, in His church, using the members
one of another. And it's Christ that gets the
glory. He's the one doing it. He's the one doing it. Look at
verse, back in our text, 1 Corinthians 12, 23. Now watch this. This is what He works by this
now. And those members of the body which we think to be less
honorable, upon these we bestow more abundant honor. And our
uncomely parts have more abundant comfiness. We do this with our
physical bodies. When we have a member that's
in need, we bestow more honor upon that member. If it's a finger
or something like that, and by doing so in Christ's body, each
member has more abundance. Nobody's lacking. Look at verse
24. For our comely parts don't have any need." Have you ever
bandaged up your arm when it wasn't hurting or sore or had
any problem with it whatsoever? It doesn't have a need. Our comely
parts have no need. But God has tempered the body
together. God's done it. And God, having
given more abundant honor to that part which lacked, that
part which is in need, that there should be no schism in the body,
but that the members should have the same care one for another. That's what He's teaching. That's
what He's teaching us by this. You see, God uses a fellow member,
but it's God who's given the honor, the one in need, and He
teaches the members to have the same care, one for another. Look
at verse 26. And whether one member suffer,
all the members suffer with it. Or one member be honored, all
the members rejoice with it. Now, you are the body of Christ. He's been using this illustration
of a physical body. Now He says, I'm talking about
you. I'm saying you are the body of Christ, and you are these
members in particular. You know what that makes me think?
That makes me think God is so wise. He's so wise. This is what He's doing with
His church, and He's so wise. And you know what it makes me
do? It doesn't make me look at my body, my physical body in
the same light. Next time I have an injury with
my eye or something like that, and my hand reaches up and tries
to care for it, you know what it's going to remind me of? It's
going to remind me of the care of my brethren for me, and the
care of my head, Christ my head, for me through my brethren. Isn't
he wise? Isn't he wise? You just think,
everything that's made to illustrate God and His wisdom, and Christ
and His wisdom, It's not just that he looked at it and said,
that will illustrate it. I'm going to use that. He made
it to illustrate it. So every heathen walking around
that hates God and won't bow to God and won't have anything
to do with God, in his body and all his members, he's a walking
illustration of God's glory in his church, in his body, with
each member in particular. Isn't God wise? We're going to
glorify God whether we like it or not. He's made us for that
purpose. Amen. All right, brethren, let's stand
together. Heavenly Father, we thank You. You continually show us how Christ
is our wisdom. You show us how He's working in our
midst continually. You continually teach us little
by little, giving us just enough that we
can chew on and digest, just enough to grow us. Lord, we don't always look on
our needs. We don't always look on our suffering
and the things we need as being a true blessing and seeing how
it serves a purpose and how You're edifying your body by it. But
help us to see, Lord, that you really are. That it's necessary. That you're teaching those brethren
that you've given more abundance to. You're teaching them. You're
teaching the one in need. And next time when it's reversed
and we're in need, we'll see more clearly why you're doing
these things. This is how you increase love. This is how you
make our hearts want to walk after you and want to be with
your brethren and want to follow you. Lord, we thank you. Forgive us
of our sins and our murmuring and our being proud of our gifts
or murmuring over our necessities. Thank you, Lord. We have all
fullness, all provision. all the time in Christ our all. Amen.